


one moment, forever

by dejakyu (dietsoba)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Dignantly Stout Cats, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Married Couple, Nostalgia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26549650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dietsoba/pseuds/dejakyu
Summary: If someone had told young Baekhyun that a cat and a candid photo (and also Chanyeol) would be the key factors in him getting together with the love of his life, he wouldn't have believed them.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Kim Jongdae | Chen
Comments: 18
Kudos: 71
Collections: Lil' Something Fest 2020





	one moment, forever

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is loosely based on that one photo of Baekhyun watching Jongdae succeed in getting the cat to come towards him during their trip to Fiji (but not the trip itself)

Taking his hands from his keyboard, Baekhyun reached up his arms and yawned, arching his back and cringing slightly when he heard the cracking sounds it made. He figured it was time to resurface from his post-work gaming session and actually consume something that wasn’t Coke Zero.

When he walked into the kitchen, it was already bathed with rosy sunset glow as winter drew nearer. He walked over to the counter and pulled out a ceramic bowl from one cupboard and a box of cereal from another. His cereal and milk could hardly be called dinner—it was only something to tide him off until later because he’d missed lunch after making a coding mistake in the program his company was developing—but the person cooking dinner wouldn’t be home for another hour.

Baekhyun had the carton of milk in hand when he heard a crash and the obvious sound of glass breaking come from the living room. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His team was waiting for him, this was supposed to be a short meal. The two sides of his brain warred with one another for a moment as he stood there, still on the brink of pouring his milk, until he remembered that yes, he did have a cat, and no, he couldn’t just leave broken glass around.

Returning the milk to the fridge and giving his cereal one last longing look of farewell, he ventured into the living room to find Hotteok, their very old, ‘dignantly stout’ cat, washing his paws clean beside a fallen picture frame. If Baekhyun knew better, and he did, he would say the cat did it on purpose (Baekhyun was never the favourite).

Baekhyun walked over and picked up the broken frame, careful not to cut himself on the glass. There were so many photographs on the bookshelf that there was almost no room for books–not that he read much anyway. He wasn’t even sure what photo this was until he flipped it over, feeling his stomach flip too when he saw what it was. He wondered how long it had been since he had ever really looked at this photo.

“You did this on purpose,” he sneered at Hotteok.

Hotteok just paused in his cleaning and looked up at Baekhyun before continuing with his business.

Baekhyun stared at the mess of glass and broken wooden frame and signed. At least it wasn’t one of the expensive frames, he thought. The photo had been on the top shelf judging by the gaping place where it should be sitting and the suspicious shuffling of all the other frames so that Hotteok could even fit on the shelf. At least the cheap frame was ugly enough to warrant replacing.

Baekhyun cleaned up all of the glass and debris, all the while throwing his cat dirty looks. He picked up some of the pieces by hand but shooed the cat away so he could vacuum up any remaining pieces. pulling out a small vacuum to collect any of the pieces he missed with his hands.

“Do you see what trouble you caused? Now what am I supposed to say to my team?” he asked the cat.

He got a curt “meow” in response before Hotteok hopped onto the couch and curled into a large fluffy ball.

Once Baekhyun had put the vacuum away, he flopped down on the couch with the photo in hand. He took his time looking at it, smoothing his thumb over the edges that had been warped after spending so much time in a frame that wasn’t quite big enough for it. The contents tugged at his heartstrings and drew him back in time the longer he looked; thoughts and memories and conflicted feelings that had agonized him at the time surfaced from where they’d been hidden beneath more recent memories. This photo in particular encapsulated the more thoughts and memories and feelings that had been long buried beneath time and space rose to the surface. This photo in particular struck a chord in his heart.

It was an old photo someone–probably Chanyeol–had taken when he and his friends had all gone on a wild post-university adventure to Fiji, before they’d become “real” adults and seriously started going in for job interviews or starting grad school. They’d spent weeks arguing about the final location until Jongin finally managed to catch wind that flights to Fiji were particularly cheap at the time. As soon as the word “cheap” was involved, they were all on board.

They were all content exploring, swimming, and relaxing while Chanyeol, who had taken up a new hobby in photography, very thoroughly documented their entire trip. He’d been so demanding Kyungsoo was just about ready to throw his camera into the ocean. This particular photo was part of a series depicting one of the major ongoing events of the trip: trying to woo the cat that hung out around the restaurant they usually ate at. On the sixth day Jongdae had finally prevailed in winning over the cat, much to the envy of both their friends and the locals.

In this final photo, Baekhyun was looking at a much younger version of himself watching Jongdae finally succeed in beckoning the stubborn cat after he had failed only seconds before. Such was Jongdae’s power that he had even been granted permission to pet it when no one else could.

There was something odd about seeing yourself captured on film in a moment when you didn’t know that no one was paying attention. It was like seeing something in yourself that only others saw. It was unnerving sometimes, like when you were doing something bizarre while piss drunk. This picture in particular captured his own raw feelings so perfectly that he could feel heat rising to his cheeks from secondhand embarrassment at having been caught with such an open expression of fondness for Jongdae after he’d been keeping carefully hidden for years.

Five years of marriage later, he couldn’t believe that yearning hadn’t been as fruitless as it seemed at the time. The fact that he’d been unable to verbalize exactly how much he loved his best friend was so far removed from the Baekhyun who now sent heart memes to Jongdae all day and clung to him whenever he could was almost unbelievable.

Hotteok looked up at him and meowed.

“Don’t look at me like that, this is all your fault.”

As if on cue, Hotteok—named as such by Baekhyun for the patterns on his fur—began walking towards the sofa with a determined look in his eye. Baekhyun knew what was coming before it happened and lifted the photo a bit so Hotteok could flop down on Baekhyun’s lap and demand to have his ears scratched while purring like a furry vibrator.

That was how Jongdae found them when he tumbled through their apartment door, tired and red-faced from the cold.

“What are you two smiling at?” Jongdae asked, brows pulled into a puzzled frown.

Baekhyun and Hotteok looked up at him in unison. As soon as he saw Jongdae, butterflies began fluttering in his stomach in a way that hadn’t happened in a very long time. If he didn’t have a massive cat lying on his lap, kneading his paws into his thigh, he would have crushed his husband’s shivering body in a huge bear hug. In lieu of that, he patted the place beside him. He needed a snuggle.

“I have to start dinner,” Jongdae said, but his resolve wavered when Baekhyun pouted. “Okay fine,” he sighed and walked over to the couch where he sat down so he could lean heavily on Baekhyun until they both nearly toppled over.

“Hey!”

Jongdae ignored him and looked towards the photo sitting on the cushion beside Baekhyun. “Show me what you were looking at.”

“Just a memory. This stupid cat started knocking photos down from the shelf like bowling pins,” Baekhyun explained, nodding towards the broken frame.

This, of course, earned him a tail to the face and Hotteok promptly relocated to Jongdae’s lap.

Baekhyun narrowed his eyes at the cat but retrieved the photo. “This photo, when Hotteok decided you were his master for life and you decided you absolutely had to bring him all the way back home.”

Jongdae’s face lit up at the memory and he took the photo from Baekhyun to take a closer look. “You were so mad about that,” he laughed, “Minseok had to force you to behave.”

“It was the most complicated process ever and we all had to rebook our flights home.”  
Jongdae leaned his head on Baekhyun’s shoulder and held up the photo so they could both see. “That’s not the only reason this photo is special, you know.”

Baekhyun blushed and turned away. “You already know that part, we don’t have to say it.”

“But you were so cute. Remind me what you were thinking at the time,” Jongdae insisted. Baekhyun could practically hear the cat-like smile on his face.

“Do I have to say it?” Somehow the raw emotions that hadn’t been nearly as defined back then were harder to express than the overwhelming affection he felt now.

“Yes you do or I won’t let you go.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“You can starve then.”

“Noooo you love me, right?” Baekhyun whined.

Jongdae sighed dramatically, “Of course I do. How could I not love someone who looks at me like that?”

Baekhyun made the executive decision that he didn’t need words and simply turned towards Jongdae and guided his face so he could kiss him. When they broke apart he muttered, “I’m pretty sure I wanted to do this, and that you were my whole world.”

Jongdae laughed and kissed him again. “And you’re mine but I’d prefer if both of our worlds had more food, so I’m going now or I won’t be able to stop.”

“Then don’t,” Baekhyun said, using his best puppy-dog eyes. His game was now long forgotten.

“Food,” Jongdae said with finality. Baekhyun couldn’t even argue because food was something they both agreed on.

Baekhyun took one last look at the photo. “We’re probably going to have to thank Chanyeol for this the next time Minseok drags him over for drunk karaoke for a reunion, aren’t we?” Baekhyun said sullenly.

Jongdae smoothed Baekhyun’s hair back and pressed their foreheads together. “We probably will,” he agreed, “but then we can beat his score and hold it over him for the rest of the night and he can only blame himself for being the reason I saw your face that day and realizing that all I ever wanted in life was Hotteok.”

Baekhyun pouted only to feel the soft press of Jongdae’s lips against his own. “You idiot, don’t pout. I can’t want something I already had, the look on your face told me that.”

Hotteok decided that was the moment he was going to get up and squirm between them so he could hop onto the back of the sofa, leaving no choice but for them to separate, laughing.

“I guess I better start dinner.”

“We can finish this later, right?” Baekhyun gave him a suggestive smile.

“Oh you can bet on it.”

When Jongdae left the room, Baekhyun took one last fond look at the photo and placed it carefully on the shelf. He added a reminder in his phone to buy a new frame and then headed to the kitchen to bother his husband while he prepared them dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to C for giving this the seal of approval and to B for naming Hotteok. ♥️
> 
> ** My Twitter [daejakyu](https://twitter.com/daejakyu)  
> ** My [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/daejakyu)


End file.
